Greenwood Voters Faced With Split Annexation Proposal

Greenwood Voters Faced With Split Annexation Proposal

CHAD HUNTER • TIMES RECORD / Shadow Lake residents, including homeowners' association president James Simpson, left, and others affected by an annexation proposal attend a special meeting Tuesday night, Aug. 12, 2014, at Greenwood City Hall.

GREENWOOD — In a special-called meeting filled with motions and votes Tuesday, the Greenwood City Council approved the twice-delayed final reading of an annexation election ordinance after splitting it into eight separate ballot measures.

The council’s move places the now multi-faceted annexation proposal in voters’ hands at the November general election.

“I don’t think it will hurt the issue,” Planning Director Sonny Bell said of the proposal’s split. “It was (City Attorney Mike Hamby’s) advice, so we like to follow that as much as we can. I think it would have passed the other way, and I think it will pass this way.”

The annexation map includes areas north and west of the city, including Shadow Lake Estates, the most densely populated area in the proposal with about 125 homes.

The third and final reading of the annexation ordinance was delayed twice since July per request from Hamby, who asked the council to split the annexation proposal into individual tracts of land Tuesday night.

“I came to the conclusion, after conducting my research and visiting with the Arkansas Municipal League, that we should use the most conservative approach,” Hamby said, “which would be we would look at annexing each one separately as an individual tract instead of one ordinance.”

The council approved three readings for each of the eight tracts of land. One tract, designated A, was passed with a 4-1 vote. Before the vote, Hamby told the council it had the option to also approve A without a 60-acre piece of property, along Arkansas 71, owned by Shirley Walters, who asked to be excluded.

Councilman Lee Johnson cast the only vote to leave Walters out.

Two tracts of land include land on either side of 71.

Prior to the meeting, attorney Stephen Smith, representing Shadow Lake residents opposed to annexation, asked if the City Council would allow residents to speak, but was denied.

As the stream of residents filed out after the meeting, one suggested the city “get ready for a fight.”

An anonymous poll taken of 187 Shadow Lake residents in 2013 showed 80 percent are opposed to annexation, according to the homeowners’ association.